eagle rays in the anchorage- jumping out of the water.
sorry, no pic.  you just have to be here.


snorkeling on this reef is different:  it's deep, so we're not looking at coral in lovely colors (plus it's been sort of gray out)- but the fish!  we were swimming with schools and schools of who knows who.

We arrived in Roatan a few hours ago.  Found a nice CALM anchorage on the south side of the island, off Fantasy Island Marina.  Expected a more honkytonk place- after all, it's a Carnival Cruise port- but except for the odd tour boat peering at us, it seems very laid back.  So far, the water's murky, with lots of seagrass and conch.


This is what we're using as a navigational chart- 

Cold front moves in on Honduras with steady 25 mph winds from the North, needless to say, we are hunkered down with 200 ft of chain out in the middle of Utila harbor. We did a bunch of diving the last couple of days which was fun and when the weather settles a bit we will head East some 25 miles to Roatan. Supposedly some good stores and restaurants there.

Captain Joyce takes the helm. Joyce moved the boat singlehanded from the lagoon to Utila, raising the anchor by herself, steering out of the lagoon and into Utila harbor to a perfect spot, and set the anchor. And she did it very well. Now I can have my heart attack in peace.

Oooooh, fish heads fish heads. The cats are soooo happy!
We're anchored out here alone at the West end of Utila, in a big lagoon surrounded by reefs and deep in the middle.  We swim and snorkel and try to stay out of the blazing sun midday, and chase down a local fisherman to buy fresh albacore tuna, dine on the fillets and let the cats go wild.  They instinctively know how to pick out the bones and leave them.
We are out of veggies, so today we're heading back to Utila to stock up, and maybe dive some more.

Octopus lairs!

Yesterday we were snorkeling on the quiet side of the island, finding nothing but seagrass beds.  We did see a few conch, and then Lorenzo noticed there were lobsters all around the edge of the grass, where it changed elevation.  The lower area was sandy, and as we were cruising around we started to see holes about a foot in diameter, widely separated from each other.  Around them were piles of empty shells, and some tiny fish.  


Inside each hole was a strange creature- an octopus!

Common octopuses, like other octopus species, discard the remains of their bivalve and crustacean prey just outside their lairs into piles called middens . These piles have proven useful to scientists to study the feeding habits of the common octopus. The piles also make it easier to spot an octopus lair and therefore perhaps an octopus.

Selling Dorado to the dive boat

We're still lolling about Utila, going on a dive every few days.  Yesterday, Lorenzo experienced the dreaded mask squeeze, which sometimes happens- it comes from the pressure descending exerts on your face mask.  He was already persona non grata under water for surfacing without a safety stop from 70 feet- not a good thing.  So today he's sitting here eating pineapple while he recovers from the trauma.  We might toddle over to another snorkel spot later on.